Members docjeffrey Posted January 9, 2013 Members Share Posted January 9, 2013 It's impossible to do that. What they've done is expand their market share to include budget minded (I'm not talking about the Agile/Sx/Douglas crowd here) buyer. High end buyers still pay the bills because the markups on 10 tops and artist packages are ginormous. The margins on a $600 SE One are slim by comparison, but PRS has expanded the SE line tremendously, so they are obviously making money. Steve M. (Owner of Wildwood) told me that sales of high end Gibsons, PRS's, etc. have slowed very little since the start of America's economic downfall in '08. The high end buyer is different from the rest of us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members docjeffrey Posted January 9, 2013 Members Share Posted January 9, 2013 It's impossible to do that. What they've done is expand their market share to include budget minded (I'm not talking about the Agile/Sx/Douglas crowd here) buyer. High end buyers still pay the bills because the markups on 10 tops and artist packages are ginormous. The margins on a $600 SE One are slim by comparison, but PRS has expanded the SE line tremendously, so they are obviously making money. Steve M. (Owner of Wildwood) told me that sales of high end Gibsons, PRS's, etc. have slowed very little since the start of America's economic downfall in '08. The high end buyer is different from the rest of us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members onelife Posted January 9, 2013 Members Share Posted January 9, 2013 When I first found my Fender JV Stratocaster in 1982 at 2/3 of the price of the US model I said "Fender is going to put themselves out of business with these" but I was wrong. I think the same thing applies with PRS and the SE line. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members onelife Posted January 9, 2013 Members Share Posted January 9, 2013 When I first found my Fender JV Stratocaster in 1982 at 2/3 of the price of the US model I said "Fender is going to put themselves out of business with these" but I was wrong. I think the same thing applies with PRS and the SE line. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members billybilly Posted January 9, 2013 Members Share Posted January 9, 2013 If I agreed with this we'd both be wrong. Originally Posted by sammyreynolds01 The SE's in my opnion are in the same range with the Squire CV's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members billybilly Posted January 9, 2013 Members Share Posted January 9, 2013 If I agreed with this we'd both be wrong. Originally Posted by sammyreynolds01 The SE's in my opnion are in the same range with the Squire CV's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members fretmonster Posted January 9, 2013 Members Share Posted January 9, 2013 No, just spreading a little budget cachet to whet the apetite, the same way Gibson and Fender have done for years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members fretmonster Posted January 9, 2013 Members Share Posted January 9, 2013 No, just spreading a little budget cachet to whet the apetite, the same way Gibson and Fender have done for years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members nicholai Posted January 9, 2013 Members Share Posted January 9, 2013 Only problem PRS has is all their guitars are a little weaksauce. No Mojo anymore, than again I should have known this in 1992 when my 16 year old friends were buying them. Yes I wish I was smart enough to stick one in a closet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members nicholai Posted January 9, 2013 Members Share Posted January 9, 2013 Only problem PRS has is all their guitars are a little weaksauce. No Mojo anymore, than again I should have known this in 1992 when my 16 year old friends were buying them. Yes I wish I was smart enough to stick one in a closet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members GAS Man Posted January 9, 2013 Members Share Posted January 9, 2013 Originally Posted by cbh5150 No. I will echo that response and expand upon it by saying, "NO" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members GAS Man Posted January 9, 2013 Members Share Posted January 9, 2013 Originally Posted by cbh5150 No. I will echo that response and expand upon it by saying, "NO" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members docjeffrey Posted January 9, 2013 Members Share Posted January 9, 2013 Originally Posted by nicholai Only problem PRS has is all their guitars are a little weaksauce. No Mojo anymore, than again I should have known this in 1992 when my 16 year old friends were buying them. Yes I wish I was smart enough to stick one in a closet. Once the Custom 24 became required gear for the nu metal crowd in the mid-late 90's, I lost interest. Then I heard what Alex Lifeson was doing with the bolt on, no frills CE 24, I bought one. It's a tremendously versatile guitar with undeniable ergonomics and it absolutely rocks my new Boogie Mark V (which Lifeson has also adopted). Once PRS won its court battle against Gibson, they went vintage with not only the single cuts, but their Cu 22 And 24's with 50's voiced pickups. The HFS is once again available as an option on the new Cu 24. They are definitely an American success story and I think that they helped throw down the gauntlet for Gibson and Fender to rethink the quality of their products. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members docjeffrey Posted January 9, 2013 Members Share Posted January 9, 2013 Originally Posted by nicholai Only problem PRS has is all their guitars are a little weaksauce. No Mojo anymore, than again I should have known this in 1992 when my 16 year old friends were buying them. Yes I wish I was smart enough to stick one in a closet. Once the Custom 24 became required gear for the nu metal crowd in the mid-late 90's, I lost interest. Then I heard what Alex Lifeson was doing with the bolt on, no frills CE 24, I bought one. It's a tremendously versatile guitar with undeniable ergonomics and it absolutely rocks my new Boogie Mark V (which Lifeson has also adopted). Once PRS won its court battle against Gibson, they went vintage with not only the single cuts, but their Cu 22 And 24's with 50's voiced pickups. The HFS is once again available as an option on the new Cu 24. They are definitely an American success story and I think that they helped throw down the gauntlet for Gibson and Fender to rethink the quality of their products. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Marc G Posted January 9, 2013 Members Share Posted January 9, 2013 I'd say it helped them a lot. Besides making lots of money for them it plants the PRS "seed" in more guitarist mind in that they have the SE and love it but they know the more expensive models are "better" so when the time comes to upgrade and spend $2K+ on a guitar rather than buying a Gibson they are more likely to get a PRS... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Grantus Posted January 9, 2013 Members Share Posted January 9, 2013 The SE line competes with Epiphone, low-end Fenders and other similarly priced guitars, not $2k PRSes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members 67mike Posted January 9, 2013 Members Share Posted January 9, 2013 Originally Posted by Grantus The SE line competes with Epiphone, low-end Fenders and other similarly priced guitars, not $2k PRSes. I disagree with you somewhat. The Construction and materials of the PRS SE line are well above any cheap Fender. I also would say it is well above Epiphone. The SE is EQUAL in my opinion....to the Epiphone Elitist line. There is not a chinese, or mexican fender that I have played, that comes close to the SE 245 I own. Folks bitching about the tuners........simply tighter the phillips-head screw on top of the tuner button...they are a bit loose from factory and hence slip easily. The Pickups have grown on me, yes they are not as bright or articulate as my Gibson humbuckers, but they are still pretty decent sounding. If you doubt it....just look up the Bernie Marsden video where he is A/Bing his signature SE PRS against his 1950's Les Paul!!!!!!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Norcal_GIT_r Posted January 9, 2013 Members Share Posted January 9, 2013 I say no.The person who's looking for a 10 top with a rosewood neck is not going to change their mind for an SE.And typically the person looking for an SE does not want a fancy ten top or rosewood neck.No matter how you slice it if you end up with an SE you're getting a very nice guitar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members noisebloom Posted January 9, 2013 Members Share Posted January 9, 2013 Agreeing with some of the earlier posts, I think the SE line is a very good introduction to PRS guitars. They have arguably the best "budget" guitar line in the industry. And as Bryan alludes to, they aren't a close substitute for anything, really, in the PRS stable. It's just a taste; if you like it and want more, then you can move up the line.The only drawback that I can see about the SE line is all the variation. The design ideas vary widely. It's hard to point to one guitar that's the flagship of the SE line. The earlier SEs, like the original SE Custom, did a better job of establishing the line. Now it's gotten a little scattershot, I think. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members TunerAddict Posted January 9, 2013 Members Share Posted January 9, 2013 I've yet to play a PRS SE that I liked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Verne Andru Posted January 9, 2013 Members Share Posted January 9, 2013 There is a maxim in marketing circles that goes something like "cannibalize your market before your competition does." What this means is, if you perceive a threat from the competition due to undercutting/cloning, it's better for you to undercut your own products and sell into that market than leave it to others. From what I've seen most of the big players in the biz have drank this Koolaid along with PRS.The bigger issue I see with PRS [in particular] is the channel stuffing that's happened as a consequence. These low-end offerings are coming out of off-shore factories like popcorn into a market glutted with low-end offerings. As a consequence I've read articles where PRS has forced shops to take on way more inventory than is healthy under the threat of losing the brand. While this sort of strong-arm tactics are not new to PRS, they do point to a sad trend the company is falling into.Rickenbacker has survived servicing the high end of the market exclusively longer than Paul Smith has been alive. They don't move the volume the others do, but the company has always been profitable, always in a back-order situation and it is still the same basic company it was when it started. IMHO PRS would have been better following that model than Fender/Gibson as the future looks like a huge slow-down that is going to leave more than one company as proverbial road-kill. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members 67mike Posted January 9, 2013 Members Share Posted January 9, 2013 Originally Posted by TunerAddict I've yet to play a PRS SE that I liked. I can say the same of epiphone (including Elitists) and any non USA Fender. I would take any PRS SE, G&L tribute , or Fernandes....as all of the ones I have played/owned have been great! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Alecto Posted January 9, 2013 Members Share Posted January 9, 2013 I'd say the opposite. The SE line has done a lot to convince players of PRS' quality at a price they're more willing to jump at. A lot of players dismissed PRS because they didn't sound like Fender or Gibson, the players that were associated with the brand or the AAA-grade maple tops. But the SE line has gotten players to realize that PRS' beauty is more than skin-deep and I think they're more likely to shell out the $$$ for a MIA PRS because they know they're getting a top-quality axe.It also helps that PRS is out-Gibsoning Gibson with the Singlecut line. With Gibson lurching from crisis to crisis (questionable quality control, the Firebird X, Lacey Act violations), PRS is looking better and better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Virtual Pariah Posted January 9, 2013 Members Share Posted January 9, 2013 Probably not, But the CE's did for sure.As much as I like them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Flatspotter Posted January 9, 2013 Members Share Posted January 9, 2013 I have both an SE and an American PRS. I'm not sorry I bought either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.